The present invention relates to apparatus for recording and reproducing information with respect to opposite surfaces of a flexible recording medium. The invention is particularly useful for magnetically recording and reproducing information with respect to opposite surfaces of a flexible magnetic recording disk, and is therefore described below in connection with that application.
Flexible magnetic recording disks, sometimes called "floppy disks", are increasingly being used as storage devices in computers and other data processing systems. Such disks can be produced very inexpensively compared to the conventional rigid or "hard" disks, but as a rule their storage capacity is considerably less because of the smaller size and lower track density normally permitted by the nature of such flexible disks.
An object of the present invention is to provide a novel arrangement for recording and reproducing information with respect to opposite surfaces of a flexible recording medium. The novel arrangement of the invention is particularly suitable for use with flexible magnetic recording disks (i.e. "floppy disks") for increasing their storage capacity, but could also advantageously be used with other flexible recording media, such as magnetic tape, optical disks or tape, and the like.